Rights panel suggests penalty for caterer over BRICS food to cops

Panaji: The Goa Human Rights Commission on Tuesday recommended that the director general of police (DGP) impose appropriate penalty on the contractor/caterer Amonkar Classic Caterers, Bicholim for providing unhygienic food to police personnel on duty during the 2016 BRICS summit.
The commission also passed recommendations to the DGP to ensure that police personnel deployed for any pre-planned event are not overburdened and sufficient rest is given to them to avoid any health problems.
Following a complaint by Aires Rodrigues that police personnel were forced to work long hours in inhumane conditions without food, water and toilet facilities, the commission’s secretary and deputy superintendent of police attached to the investigation cell of the commission, on investigation found that there was violation of human rights of police personnel deployed on duty along the route from Dabolim airport to the venue of the summit.
The commission found that food, water and toilet facilities were not provided for police personnel on duty between October 10 and 14 in the run-up to the summit.
The commission’s team found that the police had been performing continuous duties standing on the road for more than ten hours at a stretch in the scorching sun without food, water and rest, and couldn’t even move from their duty point to relieve themselves when the need arose.
This, the commission found, took a toll on the health where some staff, mainly female staff, had fainted on some occasions. Female police personnel complained that no separate facilities were available to them and they had to request residents of nearby houses to permit them to use toilet facilities. No food water no allowance during period of rehearsal, the commission had found.